R13 ? Project Summary This application seeks partial support for the 2018 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Antibody Biology and Engineering, together with an accompanying Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) to be held on March 24- 30, 2018 at the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Lucca (Barga), Italy. This is the 5th GRC and the 3rd GRS on this topic which is representative of a highly exciting and influential meeting in the community. The aim of this meeting is to provide in-depth coverage of important recent developments in the rapidly evolving field of antibody biology and engineering, in an informal setting designed for maximal discussion and interaction. This field has broad implications for a wide variety of biologic and clinically significant topics that cut broadly across the multiple fields within the biomedical community, including immunity, infectious diseases, inflammation and oncology. Furthermore, for the third time in this meeting series, we will incorporate a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS). This has proved to be a highly successful addition to the Gordon Research Conference (GRC). The GRS will run immediately prior to the GRC. It will provide seminar and poster sessions specifically for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and early career scientists to allow them to present and discuss their research. As before, a GRS keynote speaker together with the GRC chairs, will offer support and advice through a mentorship session and continuous interactions with the trainees during the course of the GRS and subsequent GRC meeting. The GRC will host approximately 28-30 talks from invited speakers, spanning topics in basic research through clinical applications with a very dynamic mix of scientists from academia and industry. It is envisioned, that an additional 10-14 shorter talks will be given primarily by young scientists, selected from submitted abstracts. In addition, the GRC will also incorporate 4 poster sessions. Taken together, the 2018 GRC will report the most significant recent research advances in an international field of antibody biology and engineering. The discoveries presented this conference are at the leading edge in the therapeutic antibody development and clinical applications. Building on the long history of creative academia-industry interactions which have characterized the three previous meetings in this series, this GRC and its associated GRS will provide an ideal opportunity for academic and bio-pharma researchers from around the world to network and forge new collaborations. We envision that novel therapeutic applications are likely to ensue from the cross pollination of the ideas that will be presented at this meeting. Furthermore, by providing opportunities for younger researchers to present their studies and to discuss their work with more established scientists, this meeting will act as an important spring board for the development of a future group of investigators in this rapidly emerging and critically important field.